There are up to 13 flights a day between London and Keflavik, Iceland. Icelandair flies to LHR and LGW, British Airways to LHR and LCY, Wow to LGW and LTN, Easyjet to LGW and LTN and Wizzair to LTN. Business class is offered by Icelandair and British Airways. Fares are normally high, but interestingly enough BA's business class from LCY costs only half compared to LHR. The main difference is that there is no lounge at London City airport but there are many advantages other than the price, such as easier access, and my personal preference for the E190's compared to the A320's.
I took the DLR from the City.
London City Airport station is literally a one-minute walk from the terminal. Automatic check-in kiosks are on the right as you exit the station.
The terminal is small and functional. The lower level is for arrivals, check-in and has a few cafes while the upper level is for departures. There was no queue at all for BA's business class check-in. I was happy to get seat 2C.
There were only a few people at the express bag drop in the middle.
There was a very long queue at TAP Portugal's economy check-in.
There is no lounge for BA's business class passengers except independent lounges outside. Your choices inside the terminal include Pilot's Bar, WHSmith, Pret a manger and Panopolis. I had a hot chocolate which was not very good. I tried to take photos with not too many people on them but all places were actually full of arriving or departing passengers at this time of the day.
There is an automated boarding pass control upstairs followed by security. There's no priority lane for business class passengers but that's not really an issue as the lines were moving quickly. The departures of the morning:
There are many cafes and bars upstairs. Once again I couldn't take any good photos as everything was crowded.
The apron is right in front of the building so there's excellent planespotting. Note G-EUNA which is BA's A318 with an all-business configuration flying between London City and New York JFK.
Boarding started on time. Business class passengers were called first. We had to wait for a few minutes at the gate downstairs then it wa very short walk to the aircraft.
The cabin crew were busy with paperwork so there was nobody to welcome boarding passengers.
Seats 2C and 2D have absolutely huge legroom. These are by far the best seats on the aircraft. This E190 has a 2+2 configuration in both classes. The other seat next to you is not necessarily empty in business class but mine was so I moved to 2D. Load was very light, 4/14 in business and only around 20% in economy.
There was no welcome drink.
We started to taxi on time at 09.15.
We took off at 09.25 and we had fantastic views of this part of London in the mostly sunny weather.
A hot towel was offered shortly after take-off.
There was no printed menu. The flight attendant came to me saying "We have full English breakfast this morning" and asked:
"Would you like something to drink" "Do you have champagne?" "Yes, of course "
Breakfast was served on a small tray. The champagne was very good; the English breakfast was reasonably good; the fruit salad was very good although a little bit too chilled; and the waffle was fine.
The cutlery has already seen many flights.
I asked for some more tea and a tomato juice after breakfast.
I enjoyed the rest of the flight reading. The friendly cabin attendant checked once or twice if I wanted anything else. She also said she had never been to Iceland before so she was looking forward to catching the first views as we were approaching.
The first views over South Iceland:
Reykjavík was mostly under the clouds.
Gardur lighthouse, a ten-minute drive from the airport at the tip of the Reykjanes peninsula, had sunshine.
Thank you for reading my flight report.
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Verdict
BA Cityflyer
7.4/10
Cabin9.0
Cabin crew7.5
Entertainment/wifi5.0
Meal/catering8.0
London - LCY
8.4/10
Efficiency7.5
Access10.0
Services7.0
Cleanliness9.0
Reykjavík - KEF
8.5/10
Efficiency9.0
Access9.0
Services7.0
Cleanliness9.0
Conclusion
While many other airlines offer a better short-haul business class service including such not-so-expensive items as welcome drinks and printed menus, I fully enjoyed this flight with the huge legroom, the light load, the good champagne, the reasonably good meal, the nice views and the friendly service. The lack of lounge was not an issue for me as I knew it was one of the reasons for the comparatively low business class fare.
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Good review and that seems one of the better BA europe business options, especially if cheaper from that airport. Hope there is enough use to keep it going.
Hi, thank you for your comment. This was my second flight between KEF and LCY (once in economy and once in business) and the load was very light of both flights. Tourism is however quickly increasing in Iceland so I hope BA will keep these flights next year as well.
Hi David, nice report as always! It's crazy to see how much air service there is now From LON airports to KEF on multiple carriers. I remember when it was just FI not that long ago. Wow, that's a lot of legroom--I'll have to remember to book those seats if I ever fly J on a BA E190. I love E-Jets in general, but for Regional J they pose a passenger experience conundrum because J is in the same configuration as Y unlike the A32X fleet, so the only difference is the catering. Nevertheless, E-Jet seats are nice and wide and generally comfortable. The breakfast looks really good--much nicer than the flattened breakfast I had in Club Europe from ATH to LHR.
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34 reviews
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Thanks for sharing!
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